Rains Eased Drought, but Did Not End It

Published 8:00 pm, Wednesday, May 14, 2003

Nearly one-fourth of the United States was in moderate to extreme drought at the end of April, but that was a vast improvement, government climate researchers said Thursday.

The National Climatic Data Center reported that at the end of April, 24 percent of the country remained in drought condition. But that was down from 37 percent in January and 50 percent last summer.

Overall, moisture from rain and snowfall was a half-inch above average for the February-April period, the center reported. Wetter-than-average conditions were prevalent in the mid-Atlantic, Southeast and in most Western states.

Near-average to drier-than-average conditions stretched from Maine to the Upper Midwest and southwest to Texas.

While the extra moisture helped many areas it was not enough to end the drought conditions in parts of the West, where dryness has persisted for three years.

The snow pack, which provides water for many western states, was near or above average at the end of April in much of the front range of the Rocky Mountains from Montana to Colorado and the Sierra Mountains, but below average in other large parts of the West.

Reservoir storage was below average in every Western state except Washington at the end of April, and river flows remained below average in a large region.

Temperatures during February-April were near average to slightly warmer than average across most of the country. The Northeast was the only region with cooler-than-average temperatures.